PH Coconut Industry Is A Sleeping Giant, Also A Slipping Giant, And It Cannot Help Itself Alone

What you see above indicates either a pile of pesos already collected, or a pile of promise already deteriorating (image from CNN, edition.cnn.com). 

"PH Coconut Industry A 'Sleeping Giant'" (2nd of 2 parts) is today's Secretary of Agriculture William Dar's Manila Times column (03 October 2019, manilatimes.net). Yes, he looks at the coconut industry as "a sleeping giant." In 1893, when Napoleon Bonaparte was asked, he said, "China? There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world" (libquotes.com). Yes, Sir! PH has a sleeping giant!

Yes, for our coconut farmers, the DA's common big goals are Masanang Ani at Malaki ang Kita (Bounteous Harvests and Plenteous Earnings, my translation).

But we have a problem with our PH giant – it has always been under the control of the local coconut cartel, but today it is much more so. On 17 September 2018, Maya M Padillo said, "Davao Oriental Asks PCA To Help Arrest Decline In Coconut, Copra," BusinessWorld, bworldonline.com) – there had been a 50% drop in prices of copra (from P40, now only P20), and whole nut (from P10, now only P5)!

The PCA is directly under the DA, no problem. To defend the coco farmers from the depredation of those engaged in the marketing chain only for their own good, it will need more than the help of the PCA. It will need the cooperation of the LGUs in place, coco-based businesses, non-government organizations, as well as the active participation of the coco farmers themselves.

These modern stories of PH rice and coconut reflect only the need for government to step in and help the farmers strengthen their coco cooperatives to be able to help their members at any time.

At the moment the DA, under the Dynamic, Active & Reactive, DAR, leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, is looking into how the DA can help shape up coco initiatives such as on increasing the yield per coconut tree, multiple cropping to increase the income from the same area, and increasing the variety of products from the same coconut. Business opportunities do not come unbidden until we look for them.

I mean, the PH coconut industry needs more help than it has learned how to give itself!

For instance, there is yet an untapped PH market for coconut, Mr Dar points out. The "Biofuels Act of 2006" provides for the increase in the coco methyl ester blend of diesel sold locally, "which could result in billions of pesos in economic benefits for the industry."

The average yield of a PH coconut tree remains between 40 and 50 nuts per tree annually – that is 5 times below the 200 nuts recorded in India and 6 times below the 300 nuts in Brazil. To wake up the giant in the coconut tree, it will have to be replaced by a hybrid one, and the cultivation augmented by good agricultural practices, GAPs. Good breeding must always be accompanied by the caring of good hands!@517